1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to straps and more particularly pertains to retractable straps which may be used on wheeled emergency tables and stretchers to secure a patient.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of stretcher straps is known in the prior art. More specifically, stretcher straps heretofore devised and utilized for the purpose of restraining and immobilizing a patient during transportation are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
For example, a restraint stretcher can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,374 which includes a plurality of straps fastened to the stretcher to immobilize a patient during transport.
A similar stretcher is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,739 which utilizes straps to restrain a multiplicity of a patient's body parts, such as a patient's head and a patient's feet, during delivery to a medical facility so as to prevent further injury to the patient.
The stretcher straps mentioned above as a part of the foregoing patents serve the intended purpose of restraining or immobilizing a patient during transport, but in some situations all of the straps present on a given stretcher are not all used. For instance, when a small child is placed upon a stretcher, the straps near the foot area may be left unsecured. Or similarly, in a medical practitioner's haste to transport a patient, a strap may be left inadvertently unsecured. An unsecured strap may fall into a wheel of a transport cart that stretchers are commonly placed upon for movement, which may cause a potentially dangerous tangling of the strap within the wheel. Furthermore, many hospital and medical facilities utilize restraining straps on wheeled hospital beds, wheeled operating tables, and other wheeled patient transport structures that are presented with a similar potential danger of an unsecured strap engaging a rotating wheel.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new retractable strap apparatus which can be utilized both to contain an unsecured strap and to alert a medical practitioner to the presence of such an unsecured strap. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.